


A Series of Significant Events

by ClosetLethargy



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV), Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-14 01:58:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17499416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClosetLethargy/pseuds/ClosetLethargy
Summary: Based on an AU idea I dreamed up, this is a crossover of two fantastic series: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, the TV show, and Natsume Yuujinchou.When the Tanumas lose their house and their parents all in one tragic swoop, they're left to the mercy of the incompetent bank that their inheritance was safely kept in. Carted off to their "closest living friend of the family willing to take them in," they find out that their sheltered life of reading and quietly creating within the safety of their home may never return. Discovering more of their adopted sibling's past, and why they have always been able to understand their lucky cat, along the way, well - those are only bonuses. Ones they weren't ready to receive just yet. And when they're stalked by a murderous relative, they have to learn how to protect themselves from a cruel world, where anyone could be after them and they can only trust each other - and the mysterious savior that's been helping them from the very beginning.





	A Series of Significant Events

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy my little idea! I have the characters already planned out - this will follow the TV show's plotline, starring the Natsume characters. Of course, some things will be different because of the character's involvement, but what's new? Please read and enjoy!

"Touru, what do we do?!” A hushed male voice snapped out in panic. He was very obviously distressed, and he was desperate for a solution. Who really cared if he wasn’t acting his age and keeping his head? “That madman is about to marry off our brother! Our very underage brother!"

"Hush, Kaname, I'm thinking - it's actually almost lucky that he chose Takashi over me, because now I have a good chance of coming up with a better plan to rescue him. Bright hot stage lights are not very conducive to help me think faster." A new voice, female, calmly reassured him, but didn’t exactly offer the solution that the boy was looking for. As identical pairs of one golden bronze and one coffee brown eye each peered out from behind a heavy draping maroon curtain, hands and feet binding them together back-to-back, they watched their foster brother on the poorly designed stage tug nervously at the collar of his uncomfortable costume, sweat ruining what little makeup had been applied to his face for lighting purposes. He was quite obviously scared out of his wits - they all were, barring the excited audience and their current guardian, Matoba Seiji, of course. He looked quite pleased with himself as he played the part of “witness” in this sham of a play, the bandage over his eye fresh and his hair cleaned and slicked back in a ponytail.

With their clever pet cat locked up back at the collapsing dump they had been forced to call home for the last month, Touru and Kaname tied securely in the back of the stage, and Takashi about to be publicly married to the sinister looking woman with raven black hair and a wicked painted red grin, they were headed for certain disaster. As they watched, the woman slipped her hand tightly into Takashi’s, whispering into his ear. The crowd aww’d, thinking it part of the script, but the siblings could clearly see their brother’s eyes widen and the woman grinning at him devilishly. 

"…and do you, Tanuma Takashi, take this woman to be your wife, to love and to cherish…"

"Hurry it up, Touru!" Kaname urged anxiously, watching the all too legally binding ceremony taking place during the farce of a play. Their brute of a guard, a very hairy man that looked more animal than man, shushed them noisily, peeking back through the curtain to watch the rest of the ceremony that would make him rich and wealthy. The shady woman in white puckered her lips and leaned close - in the play, she was to give a passionate kiss to her groom before they signed the marriage certificate, and when Takashi shyly ducked away, she grasped his wrists and pulled him so close to her own face that their noses were touching. She mumbled something to him, though Kaname was too far to hear it. It was an obvious threat, though, that much he knew. 

"Touru!" He snapped in a whisper, frightened for their brother. 

"I've got it! Kaname, once you're free, I want you to do something incredibly stupid." Kaname could only glance back at his twin sister pitifully.

"Touru!"

"Do you want to save Takashi and Nyanko?"

"…fine."

Now, perhaps you're wondering how these children ended up in such a bizarre situation. Perhaps you worry for them already. Perhaps you simply don't care. However, for those that do care and for the sake of the story, perhaps I should begin this tale further back. Nobody knows exactly when the story begins, so I will start at what I believe to be the beginning - at the very beginning. 

\\( ‘ – ‘ )/

"Kaname, what did you do?!" Flames were burning brightly, engulfing the mansion in swift seconds. Smoke was thick and unchecked, and the spurting bursts of heat were very overwhelming. 

"I didn't do anything! Where's Ponta?" The chilled October air calmly fed the flames as sirens faintly blared to life too many blocks away. They had to do something before tragedy, riding piggyback on disaster, could catch up to them, kiss them and wish them a fond farewell from this world.

"He's with Takashi on the roof already! Come on, we have to go!" 

Billows of suffocating black smoke drifted lazily away from the burning mansion - the very one these three siblings, Touru, Kaname and Takashi, and their cat Nyanko (though Kaname insisted on calling him Ponta) inhabited as home. The very one that their foster brother had only started living in two weeks ago. And, bemoaning their misfortune, the same one they'd promised their parents that very morning, that they would guard and keep safe while they went to visit a sick friend two cities to the west. The fire had started rather mysteriously, for you see, these three children were quite intelligent and had done nothing to put their lives and home at risk. They hadn’t even lit the fireplace, letting the electric heat do its work. Wisps of smoke had silently begun trailing in intricate deadly tendrils up the elegant staircase in the living room while they were up in the attic, enjoying various books and projects in companionable peace unawares; flames had already captured the drapery and furniture in their smoldering clutches – suspiciously quickly. The children had not noticed its presence until they were trapped in the attic; thus, they were in their current predicament, standing stop the roof in only the clothes off their backs, furiously trying to concoct a way out that would let them remain alive until the fire department arrived. 

With Takashi fearfully clutching Nyanko in his thin arms, Kaname shouting for help at the top of his smoke damaged lungs with hands cupped around his mouth and Touru tying her short chestnut hair up into a bun to better think of a way to get them down, they were quite the spectacle in the neighborhood. However, it was unfortunate that there was a large parade further away in the center of town that day. None of their closer neighbors were home. Surrounded already by two acres of front and back lawn, that made discovery quite impossible.

"Take my hand!" Touru suddenly commanded both brothers. Kaname unquestioningly grabbed the one closest himself, while Takashi shakily grasped the other much more hesitantly. "We're going to jump, down to the pool! Don’t either of you DARE let go of my hands! Ready? One, two, THREE!" They leapt as one, despite twin looks of terror flitting on the boys' faces and one of determination striking across Touru's.

"AaaaauuuuGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!" 

Fortunately, just as the ginger had predicted, they landed with a terrific splash in the immense in-ground pool, sending a geyser of frigid water shooting heavenward like a sparkling, massive fountain. Amidst the flickers of fire bursting out of the open windows and the sooty black smoke hanging in the air, depositing fragmented ashes across everything in its wake, it looked disturbingly beautiful. Now, Touru was a wonderfully strong swimmer, having learned how since she could walk properly, and with a mighty tug, she brought all three of them gasping up to the surface, where she only briefly glanced at Kaname, who was just as practiced a swimmer, before turning to their newly adopted brother to check on him. He seemed well enough, considering, but he was staring up at the house in horror, sunset golden eyes bright, and as Touru and Kaname turned to see as well, the roof gave a distressed groan, creaked to the right, creaked to the left, and collapsed in on itself, bringing the rest of the manor down with a horrendous crash. The word for their shared feeling on this matter was called disbelief.

Touru, having predicted such an event as the structure not withstanding the pressure of having its supports burned away, instructed her brothers to take as deep a breath as they could conceivably hold, pushed them underwater and immediately joined them, for as everyone knows, when a building collapses, debris of all sizes goes flying, and when that debris is on fire, the safest place to be is in the water. Sure enough, stone and brick and plaster and mortar thundered down to the depths to join them, hissing violently as they sunk to the bottom. Touru urged the boys to the far end of the pool – if they were in there too long, they were in danger of the water boiling, or of being struck with any number of things, most dangerous being the larger bits that were concrete or brick. Upon resurfacing, even Touru was panting dearly for a clean breath of air, and they hurriedly helped one another out, where they wisely took off at a fast lope across the estate grounds towards the road, going in a circle as far around the mansion as they could without being out of sight of the burning building. 

By the time the fire department did finally arrive, it was much too late – their home was gone. They’d witnessed its destruction themselves. The now homeless siblings somberly examined the still overheated remains several hours later, all trace of the fire squad and police cars and ambulances having cleared away long ago. Police and paramedics had offered to take them in and call their parents, but they refused. Many concerned neighbors had stopped by, offering condolences and a place to stay, but they again declined. Their parents would be home that night, they explained patiently, they would rather wait for them to return, outside, where they could find one another more easily. As dusk fell, which swiftly turned into night around six that evening, Kaname began frowning thoughtfully. As they were sitting on a relatively non-ashy section of the yard, Takashi busy keeping Nyanko preoccupied so his insistent mewls for food would be put off a little longer, Touru nudged him, silently offering her ear. Kaname gestured to the street lamps flickering on as they did every night.

“Didn’t mother and father say they would be home before dark?” He questioned. Touru casually glanced in the direction their car had taken that morning. 

“Perhaps they got delayed?” She offered, more a question than a statement. It was a weak excuse and she knew it. If their parents said they’d be home before dark, they were. There had been no call, no word from any neighbors informing them of a delay. This entire day had been one big, strange disaster, and none of them quite knew what to make of it. Now that they were under the very real cloud of thought that their parents had decided to stay overnight without letting them know, they had to figure out what to do for themselves. It would be extremely rude to impose on a neighbor after turning them all down earlier. 

“W – what do we do until they c - come back? I – it’s getting so cold,” Takashi timidly chattered, having huddled in on himself long ago with Nyanko on his lap to keep the cat warm. Touru pulled her damp black hair ribbon out of her belt loop, fixing up her frizzy hair into some semblance of her usual high ponytail. She glanced around at what little they could see by the light of the street lamps, and strode toward to the half-demolished garage. They were incredibly lucky that neither the car nor any spare gasoline was in there when the fire had spread. An explosion would have left them with nothing, not even partial shelter. She peered intently up at the missing roof, stood still against a wall for a few moments with her palm stroking it carefully, and dug about in the ash coated things left uncharred. With a triumphant flair and a grunt of victory, she uncovered the tarp their parents had used when repainting the living room that summer.

“We can use this,” she announced. The boys hopefully trudged closer, where Touru directed them to sit against the one remaining wall. There, the wind was mostly blocked, and Touru tucked them in tightly, squeezing herself in on Takashi’s left side, effectively sandwiching him in the middle. While he and Kaname were both prone to sickness and injury, in the little time Touru had been his sister, it had become obvious that he was sicklier than Kaname, and more prone than he was to the elements. None of them were particularly eager to start a fire for additional warmth in lieu of what had happened, so they simply huddled together under the tarp, their damp clothes warming wonderfully with the shared heat. They stayed that way until the morning sun broke the horizon, shining brightly into their eyes. Hungry and still cold, they roused themselves, stretched, and took stock of their surroundings. Their parents had not returned yet, and despite their best efforts, Takashi was desperately trying to stifle his sniffles indicating the start of a nasty cold. Touru, having left her hair up the previous night, began thinking quickly. They needed to find food and shelter, and perhaps some medicine for Takashi along the way. But where to start?

Kaname briefly suggested they could just go to the hospital and ask to wait there until their parents came; they could help Takashi, they’d be fed and warm, and if their parents didn’t sign a release form, the police could help them. Touru nodded her agreement. If they had to, they could track down their parents from there and go to stay with them somewhere until this whole mess sorted itself out. They began their trek down to a nearby beach – it was the central point of town, and made finding various local locations without a map unbelievably easy. It was when they were only midway across the beach, not really enjoying the soft sand as they normally did, when they heard huffing and wheezing coming up from behind, peppered with what could vaguely be passed as each of their names. They obligingly paused, and waited as the paunchy, stiff collared banker they were casually acquainted with, Chobihige of their family account, came puffing up to them, looking relieved that they had noticed him. Not terribly interested in banking other than a passing thought here and there about various things regarding how it operated and what it was for, the Tanumas had only recently begun recognizing him as the man with the abnormally large head who helped them sort out the paperwork for turning legal guardianship of Takashi over to them. Feeling obligated to the rather self-important man, they allowed him to catch his breath and fruitlessly tug out wrinkles in his sweaty banking suit before Touru spoke, asking him what he needed.

“Me?” He countered innocently. “I only came to tell you something best relayed in person.” He sniffed in an inhale, gagged into his ever-present handkerchief, and squared his round shoulders. His deep, wobbling voice often had attention stolen away from it by his little twitching mustache, but the children were well practiced in avoiding laughing outright at people, so they heard the following words all too clearly. “Your parents are dead,” he stated quite bluntly. Not sure if they were understanding the beady eyed little man correctly, Kaname blurted “what,” politeness forgotten. Chobihige cocked his head to one side, wondering if they heard him.

“Yes,” he reasserted, “your parents are dead. Unfortunate accident on the road home last night, they both died instantly. Terrible it is. Well, since your home has been mysteriously destroyed and you have no relatives willing to take you lot in,” here he paused to give Takashi a pointed look, “you’ll be coming with me. The bank is in possession of your parents’ will, and so I must work out all the paperwork regarding your new guardianship. It seems they already indicated who you should be sent to upon any untimely deaths. Well, come along, children, the bank closes in an hour and then I’ll be off the clock and can’t help you.” Numb from so many things, the news, the cold, the utter chaos their lives had become in such a short time, they allowed themselves to be herded to the road, into Chobihige’s little car that boasted a sputtering engine, cramped space and a busted heater. The drive to the bank was painfully awkward, with Chobihige doling out calloused condolences and the children remaining silent from shock. Who was the person their parents had anticipated sending them to in the cause of an untimely death? More importantly, how did they know that they’d die together? That seemed to be the implication in Chobihige’s earlier commentary. Wherever they were going, whatever happened, they knew this for certain:

Nowhere could be better than having their own parents back. Touko and Shigeru had been their family, and nobody could replace that warm love they had, no matter how hard they tried.

**Author's Note:**

> How was it? Yes, I did kill the Fujiwaras, but I have a very, very, very good reason for doing such an awful thing, which you'll have to keep reading to find out! Please review if you enjoyed! \\( ' - ' )/


End file.
